The present invention relates to a pattern forming method which can be used in manufacture of semiconductor elements, printing plates, etc., and particularly relates to a pattern forming method of selectively forming a film on an arbitrary substrate by use of chemical vapor reactions.
Heretofore, resist patterns in the manufacture of semiconductor elements or resin patterns which provide negative plates in the manufacture of printing plates have been manufactured in the following manner; A resin film which may be polymerized or decomposed by irradiation of light is formed on the substrate and, then, light beam are irradiated in any arbitrary pattern on the resin film, followed by development, thereby forming the pattern. More and more refining of these resist patterns has become demanded for attainment of higher density of semiconductor elements and higher quality of printed forms.
Particularly, in the manufacture of a very large scale integrated circuit (VLSI), there has arisen the need for forming at a high accuracy a resist pattern in fine lines of submicron order. While this process is largely affected by the physical properties of the resist itself, generally, the finer the desired pattern (thus, for increasing the resolution), the resist film applied needs to thinner. On the other hand, when it comes down to providing submicron patterns, wet etching can not be utilized, but such a dry etching as ion etching, plasma etching or sputter etching, etc., must be utilized. In order to improve the dry etching resistance of the resist pattern, generally, the resist coating needs to be thick.
Accordingly, in order to meet the above-stated two requirements, it is advisable to develop a photoresist whose coating is thick, but gives high resolution, or a photoresist whose coating is thin but gives high dry-etching resistance. However, presently, there is no such material available.